There are many requirements to be satisfied when providing a single use disposable package, of the type manufactured from a continuous material web or an individual package blank, with an opening arrangement. The opening arrangement must be easy to apply to the package. It must be easy to open and the consumer must be able to ensure that no-one has tampered with the package. In addition, the opening arrangement should not disrupt the path of the material web through the filling machine. In many respects, this has been achieved by exteriorly providing the package with a strip that is intended to be torn off when the package is opened, a so-called pull-tab.
The strip is normally applied in the filling machine, which thus necessitates register maintenance and additional workstations in the filling machine. Furthermore, an exteriorly located strip may cause problems when the package passes through the sterile bath with which aseptic filling machines are equipped, since residual products may remain on the edges of the strip. Even though the strip is made from a thin material, it still constitutes an additional structure on the packaging material, which may occasion problems in feeding the material web through the filling machine. Such a strip is as good as tamper-proof, but can nevertheless be manipulated.